An essay on pain.
Pain is an intense distressing feeling, often caused by an external event. Pain usually carries negative connotations for us, but it shouldn’t.
Why?
Because..
Pain is a Signal
What does pain signal?
Pain signals a need to change and grow.
Pain signals an issue in our life that needs resolving. Pain is a symptom, not the cause of the issue.
Types of Pain
Pain can be physical or emotional.
Physical pain signals change is in progress.
Examples – tooth ache while kids are growing permanent teeth, body ache when you are down with a virus, knee pain or back aches as you grow old, or a painful wound after you have hurt yourself.
Our body has evolved over millennia to handle these physical changes through automatic in-built mechanisms (that still continue to evolve).
The signal of pain makes us aware of the physical change in progress and to seek help if required.
Emotional pain signals change is needed.
Examples – losing a loved friend or family member, arguments with family members or at work, losing a source of income, or getting distressed by someone else’s words.
While our bodies have evolved ways to deal with physical pain, our brain is less evolved to deal with emotional pain arising from living in a society with its increasingly complex structures, relationships and interactions.
Hence we often feel lost when faced with emotional pain.
However, like traffic lights, emotional pain is signaling us to take action to address the underlying issue that is the cause of pain.
There is no good or bad pain.
Pain just is.
N. K Jemisin says in her fantasy novel The Fifth Season:
Perhaps you think it wrong that I dwell so much on the horrors, the pain, but pain is what shapes us, after all.
We are creatures born of heat and pressure and grinding, ceaseless movement.
To be still is to be not alive.
Don’t hold on to pain.
Be a Stoic. Use the signal from pain to grow and transform yourself.
The Price of Growth
Success has a price. So does growth.
The price of growth is pain.
While learning can be acquired from teachers and books, wisdom is acquired only through pain.
Carl Jung said, “There is no coming to consciousness without pain.”
For intelligent beings like us, pain is an essential part of growing up.
Recognize pain as a signal and use it as a constructive input in your journey of growing up.
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